Mario Tchou

Born in Rome on 26 June 1924, he was the son of Evelyn Wang and the diplomat Yin Tchou, who worked within the Consulate of the Republic of China at the Holy See.

[citation needed] After obtaining his classical high school diploma at the Torquato Tasso Gymnasium High School in Rome, he undertook his studies in electrical engineering in Rome, at the La Sapienza University, and continued them with a scholarship in the United States, where, in 1947, he obtained a Bachelor of electrical engineering at the Catholic University of America in Washington.

He later began working on the largest Olivetti Elea, the greatest transistor supercomputer of the time, later built in 40 examples.

Only young people throw themselves into it with enthusiasm, and collaborate in harmony without personalism and without the obstacles deriving from a customary mentality.» He considered Italy "...at the same level as the most advanced countries in the field of electronic calculating machines from a qualitative point of view.

Olivetti's effort is relatively notable, but the others have a more secure future than ours, being helped by the State" The young engineer personally tried to get closer to Ivrea, the historic headquarters of Olivetti, to break down the wall of distrust that the employees of the mechanical sector had towards the newly formed electronics division, but his attempts were in vain: the mechanical and electronic sectors they remained divided, like their respective headquarters, one in Ivrea, the other in Borgolombardo, a hamlet of San Giuliano Milanese, where the Barbaricina group moved in 1960.